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I am fascinated by the rise of "audiophile" Class D amps, and the increasing respect they get from reviewers and listeners. If you have been "converted" to Class D, I would be curious to hear what amp converted you, and what your journey was before you arrived at Class D. Did you come from Class A/B solid state, or pure Class A, or even tubes? What convinced you that Class D was right for you?I am most interested in stories where Class D just sounded so good that you no longer felt you were compromising by listening only or primarily to a Class D amp.My story first: I have been a Class A/B solid state amp listener for most of my life, starting with high-current HK integrated amp from the 1980s, and later with an Anthem receiver (which I still think sounds fantastic), and most recently a beautiful Luxman L507-u integrated amp. I even dabbled in tube amps with a nice mid-priced SET amp (Tokyo Sound Valve 100/SE). But on a lark, I bought a used pair of Bel Canto Ref500M monoblocks, and later a Bel canto Pre3... and these have become the core of my primary listening system. I just find them to be as good as anything I have ever lived with: refined & balanced, powerful and liquid-sounding. What more can I ask for? The sense of sonic realism is startling when I first turn on a good recording.Cheap Class D can sound lifeless and grey. But well-executed Class D can hang with the big boys! (Though I will admit that I have not spent much time with some of the BIG boys, like Pass Labs pure Class A solid state amps...)Thanks in advance for your stories of how you arrived at Class D!Regards,Eric
KMMD, The Pass X250.8 runs in class A for the first 20-24 watts then AB. With my Maggies even at loud levels never leaves class A except on bass heavy music, then the meter needle will cross midline (telling you that you are leaving Class A) occasionally during thunderous bass. And my X250 leaves class A at around 15wpc unlike the 0.8 series which leaves Class A at over 20wpc. I was shocked to see how little power you actually use.I am not surprised that the Coda Amp has tighter bass. Pass labs gear usually has a low dampening factor of 150 and you can tell it in the bass as it is more rounded sounding for lack of a better term. My old Parasound A21 had a dampening factor over 1100 and it had tighter but less thunderous bass compared to my X250. I prefer the bass of the X250 as real tight bass does not sound natural to me.
Today was the first day at THE Show in Costa Mesa. It was my first audition of Class D amps, and I’m impressed.I liked both the AGD Productions / Ocean Way Audio room with the Solo monoblocks and Evolution Acoustics / The Audio Association room with WestminsterLab Rei monos bridged. I did like the Rei’s more.
But the Westminster REI's are class A, no?I'll have another Coda 16.0 here soon. Best I've heard in my system when I demo'd it a few months ago.